


Genius

by thatmitchsentho



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 20:49:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8815813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatmitchsentho/pseuds/thatmitchsentho
Summary: Mitchsen AU. Aubrey is at the Apple Genius Bar, and the news isn't good. At least, she thinks it isn't good. By chance, one Beca Mitchell overhears and offers to help.





	

"Please tell me you're not being serious right now," Aubrey pleaded. The blue shirted guy behind the counter shrugged apologetically, despite not actually looking sorry at all.

"I'm afraid there's no way I can pull anything off of it, I'm sorry," he said. "You're going to need a new laptop, though."

"That's the least of my worries," Aubrey sighed. "I need those files."

"I'm sorry," he said again. "You've got boot problems and a failing hard drive." The blonde massaged her temples. This was going to be an interesting conversation with her boss.

"Can I walk you through some of our Macbook models?" he asked hopefully.

"Are you certain there's nothing you can try to even attempt to get something off of the drive?" Aubrey asked. "I'm happy to pay for you to try anything and everything." A woman with brown hair approached the counter and waited.

"Do you not understand what 'no' means? It's screwed," the guy snapped. Aubrey's eyes narrowed. "Are you going to buy a laptop or not?"

"Excuse me?" Aubrey said. "Is that your only concern? That you make a sale? I think I'll take my laptop now, and I'll find someone who will at least try to fix it. Some 'genius' you are." The man stalked off to get her laptop.

"Computer problems?" the other woman said.

"Apparently I have boot problems and a failing hard drive," Aubrey muttered.

"Ouch. But it hasn't completely failed yet?" she asked. Aubrey looked at her, confused.

"I'll admit I'm not very good with technical things," Aubrey said.

"When you hit the power button, what happens?" the stranger asked.

"Light on the side, whirring noise, no action," Aubrey said. "It sounds like it wants to work, but nothing happens." The genius returned and Aubrey signed for her goods.

"Do you mind if I take a look?" the woman asked. "I'm no blue shirt but I had a problem just like that with my last Macbook Pro. I'm Beca, by the way. Mitchell."

"Aubrey Posen," the blonde said. "And I suppose it isn't going to hurt." They moved toward the end of the long glass counter.

"You can't do your dodgy repairs here," the genius said, following them.

"Are you going to tell that to every other person with their computers out at this counter?" Beca asked. She pulled a slip out of her pocket. "Just here to pick up a couple of external hard drives, if you don't mind." The genius rolled his eyes and walked away with the slip. Beca hit the power button and waited.

"Yeah, this is as far as it goes," Aubrey said. "I hate to be that whiny bitch but I need the data off of that hard drive, I don't care if I have to buy a new laptop."

"Work stuff?" Beca asked.

"Yes," Aubrey said. "The kind of stuff bosses hate for you to lose."

"What do you do?" Beca asked, rummaging in her messenger bag for something.

"I'm a lawyer," Aubrey said.

"Damn," Beca said. "Well, Aubrey, I'm pretty sure I can at least save your data. It's going to look like I'm destroying your computer, but all I'm doing is-"

"The details will just confuse me," Aubrey said. "Whatever you need to do, go for it." Beca located the things she was looking for, flipped the laptop upside down and began unscrewing the casing. The genius returned with Beca's hard drives and was going to interrupt, but she cut him off before he even began.

"That will be all," she said. "They're already paid for. So." He left and walked a few paces away, fuming. Aubrey didn't want to interrupt and ask questions, she just watched as she unscrewed and unplugged the hard drive and set it inside a plastic casing she'd pulled from the cavernous depths of her bag. Then she whipped out her own laptop and turned it on, clicking things and opening programs, and eventually plugging the drive in.

"You will still need to buy a new laptop," Beca said. "But I'll be able to set it up so that it looks exactly like your old laptop with everything intact."

"Are you kidding?" Aubrey asked. "Please tell me you're not messing with me."

"I'm not," Beca said with a smile. The blonde looked like she wanted to hug her.

"Do you have any recommendations about what I need?" Aubrey asked. The genius, who had been hovering nearby, swooped in.

"We have a rang-"

"As if I want your input," Aubrey said. "I was asking her. She clearly knows more about this than you do. You told me nothing was salvageable. Nothing."

"Yeah," Beca said. "Dude? What's your name? Jackson? Is Van here? Tell him Beca Mitchell is in." He looked angry.

"Seriously," he said under his breath. He picked up a phone on the counter.

"What do you use it for?" Beca asked. "Just work?"

"Pretty much," Aubrey said. "I mean, I have a lot of music on there too, but it's nothing I can't replace."

"Not games or photoshop or movies or anything?" Beca asked.

"No," Aubrey said. "It's pretty much all work and music."

"Do you trust me, Aubrey?" Beca asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you trust me to pick you out what you need?" Beca asked. "Is price a problem?"

"Money isn't a problem," Aubrey said. "If you get me set up, I don't care if it costs a million dollars." Another guy approached them from behind the counter, greeting Beca warmly.

"Hey, how's my VIP customer?" he asked.

"Good, Van, good," Beca said. "Look, this is Aubrey. She's had a less than stellar experience with young Jackson over there. Told her that she was doomed, tried to sell her a new laptop." The man looked genuinely concerned and asked Aubrey to explain what happened.

"And you, what, swooped in to save the day?" he directed to Beca.

"Something like that," Beca said with a grin. Aubrey was beginning to like that smile. "Anyway, she does need a new laptop, but all is not lost." She spoke with him quickly about what Aubrey might need, asking if they had it all in stock. He was certain they did and went off to find out.

"This is going to take a while," Beca said. "Do you have somewhere to be?"

"No," Aubrey said. "And thank you. So much, I mean it. You're a lifesaver."

"Just a person in the right place at the right time," Beca said. Van returned with a stack of stuff, and Aubrey slid a credit card over the counter.

"Don't you want to know how much?" he asked.

"Whatever she says I need, I believe her," Aubrey said.

"Smart woman," Van said. He rang up the sale and handed the receipts and everything back to Aubrey. "You guys gonna stay here or head to the seated area?"

"We'll sit," Beca said.

"And I'll make sure I sit down with Jackson," Van promised. "He's a transfer, thinks he's king shit but it turns out he really doesn't know anything useful." Aubrey helped Beca tote everything to a table with some chairs at it, the brunette quickly unpacking things and plugging things in. She could admit she had no idea what was going on.

"This is incredible," Aubrey said. "I'm sure you have other things you could have been doing today, I really appreciate it."

"Nothing super important," Beca said.

"You must come here a lot," Aubrey said. "That guy seems to like you."

"Van?" Beca said. "He's a good guy. We've known each other for years, Apple Store aside, and I order a lot of stuff to this store. Gets him sales, gets me what I need."

"Friend of yours?"

"In a roundabout way," Beca said. "I used to date his sister. We broke up, but Van and I stayed friends. If you end up coming back here, ask for Van specifically. He knows his shit, if he'd gotten your laptop he'd be doing exactly what I'm doing now." She gestured to the screen and saw it doing something.

"Is he going to be mad you stole his business?" Aubrey asked.

"Nope," Beca said. "I pump enough money into this store, he doesn't care. Now talk to me about backing up your files. I'm assuming you don't do it."

"No," Aubrey admitted sheepishly. "But I think I'll be doing it from now on."

"Good," Beca said. "I asked him to get you a hard drive to back up to as well."

"So how is it you know so much about computers?" Aubrey asked.

"I use them. A lot," Beca said. "Basically I depend on computers running smoothly. So you have to learn, because as we just witnessed, sometimes the pros aren't so pro."

"What do you do?"

"I DJ," Beca said. "And produce music and write songs." The progress bar was indicating that they still had almost ninety minutes to wait.

"I feel bad for taking up so much of your day," Aubrey said. "Can I at least buy you coffee? There's a Starbucks across the street."

"I'll never turn down free coffee," Beca said. "Thanks. Latte, no sugar."

"Sure," Aubrey said. "I'll be back in a moment." She disappeared and Beca just watched the screen. The blonde was awfully pretty. She did actually have to be somewhere, but she decided to cancel and pulled out her phone, dialing a number.

"Becs?" It was her best friend Jesse.

"Yeah, Jess," she said. "I'm not gonna make lunch."

"What? Why?" he asked.

"I swung past the Apple Store to pick up those hard drives I ordered," she said. "Ran into a really gorgeous blonde who was fighting with some dickhead genius and now I'm fixing her computer."

"Beca," Jesse laughed. "Only you would pick up a girl in an Apple Store."

"Hey," Beca said. "I haven't picked her up. I don't even know if she likes girls. She just looked hella stressed, so I asked what the problem was and I realized could fix it. She's across the road buying me coffee."

"And what do you know about this blonde?" Jesse asked.

"That her name is Aubrey, she's a lawyer, she has no technological knowledge whatsoever and that she has pretty eyes," Beca said. "I'll call you later, okay?"

"Yeah," he said. "But you owe me."

"Deal," Beca said. Aubrey returned a few moments later with two tall cups of coffee, one of which Beca accepted gratefully.

"Thanks," she said. "It's still got a while to go." They began to talk about their respective jobs for a while. Aubrey realized that she'd actually been to a few clubs when Beca was playing at them and commented that she actually liked her stuff. Beca remarked that with the law career she was surprised that she managed to get out so much.

"Oh, it's definitely few and far between," Aubrey said. "My friend Chloe keeps trying to drag me out every other night but I just can't. My boss would have a stroke if I ever showed up to work with a hangover." The computer began to reboot, and Aubrey watched with great anticipation. When it came up with her user profile and password prompt she exhaled in relief.

"Oh my god," she said. "Thank you so much, Beca. I can't believe you fixed it." She logged in and had a quick look around, noting that everything was unscathed and exactly how she had it set up on her old machine.

"My pleasure," Beca said. "I'm glad your boss isn't going to kill you. Now, when it comes to backing up…" She took the reigns and showed Aubrey how to back it up so that it only overwrote the files she'd changed since the last backup. When she was finished giving Aubrey the pointers, she dug a pen out of the neverending bag and scrawled her phone number on a scrap of paper.

"This is my phone number," Beca said. "Feel free to call me if you have any other technological questions." They began to pack up their various pieces of hardware.

"Thank you, again," Aubrey said. "I'm never going to be able to say it enough. You saved my ass."

"It was nothing," Beca said with a wave, and turned to leave.

"Hey, Beca?" Aubrey's voice came. She turned back around and saw Aubrey clutching the paper with her number on it. "Do you think maybe I could call you sometime even if I don't have a computer question? Like maybe if I had a question about whether or not I could take you to dinner?" Beca smiled.

"Well, the answer to that would be yes," Beca said. "To both questions."

"Great," Aubrey said. "I'll call you." Beca just waved again and left. The second she got outside she pulled out her phone and texted Jesse.

_So maybe I did pick her up. Or she picked me up. Either way, we're going out for dinner._


End file.
